Finding Happiness

“Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities,” (The Family, A Proclamation to the World)

Faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work and wholesome recreational activities equals happiness. When you are progressing towards God you will always find happiness. God’s great plan for all of his children is appropriately called, The Plan of Happiness. Happiness achieved in your earthly state as well as in the eternities to come.


Satan does not wish us to be happy on earth or eternally. He does and will do all he can to tempt, persuade, destroy and confuse God’s children and their progression towards him. “Understanding the intent of the enemy is a key prerequisite to effective preparation,” David A Bednar.

Finding and keeping happiness in your life is not a great mystery. Live as God intended and be happy. Be bound by Satan’s tactics and be miserable. It is important to be able to identify what actions bring short term happiness and which bring long term happiness. Having an eternal companion and raising a family under the direction of God brings long term happiness. Disobeying God’s law for a bit of “fun” only lasts until the fun ends and then is replaced with feelings of remorse, guilt and many times unavoidable consequences. It may help to understand that God loves you unconditionally, Satan only wants to use you and is jealous of you.

How can you find happiness? Look to God, follow His plan and live his commandments. Don’t ever give up on happiness. Adam fell that we might have joy. The Savior died so that we could find forgiveness and a fresh start. If you are seeking the secret to happiness, search no further than the Father of Heaven and Earth. He loves you, knows you and desires above all for you to find true long term happiness.

WANTED.....A Mother For Four Amazing Children

 If you were to write a job listing for the mother of your children what would it look like?

Help Wanted…

I am looking for someone to mother four amazing children. It is important to know from the beginning that these children belong to God and they each have special divine attributes to offer the world. These attributes will need proper nourishment, support and love in order for the children to flourish and reach their divine potential.

She must…..

Foster positive emotional connections with the children collectively as well as individually.

Provide adequate discipline and regulations that allow the children to make individual decisions.

Be patient with them and respond positively to their bids for attention and affection.

Set rules and guidelines and be proactive in following through with them.

Teach them to work by working alongside them and mentoring their growth.

Allow their weaknesses to foster a deep humility from positive learning experiences.

Provide opportunities for them to learn, grow and develop talents.

Emphasize and foster their positive characteristics.

Play with them and laugh with them.

Help to know and understand that God loves them and that their Savior died for them.
(Successful Marriages and Families, Proclamation Principles and Research Perspective, Ch 10)

Job Qualification: Daily scripture reading, Daily prayer and a deep love of God the father and his son Jesus Christ.

 "Just save the relationship"

(Kathleen H. Hinckley)

Turn Towards Each Other Every Day

Every marriage needs nurturing, love and friendship for survival. Marriage is essential to God’s plan of happiness and keeping and maintaining a marriage relationship takes daily work and effort. Here are some ways to turn towards your spouse on a daily basis as found in, Successful Marriages and Families, Proclamation Principles and Research perspectives. “Get in sync with your partner’s love preferences. Find out how your partner likes to receive love and do those things often,” (Duncan, Zasukha, CH 3)

1. Everyday your spouse will reach out to you with some type of bid for affection, how you respond is crucial to their feeling of being loved and nurtured. Does their bid warrant laughter, concern or an action on your part? Be aware and respond the way you would want to be responded to.

2. How many things can you think of that you do every single day? There are multiple activities that we must do and want to do on a daily basis. Pick a couple of those activities and make a special effort to include your spouse in the activity. Some suggestions include; making the bed, reading together, watching a TV show, doing the dishes, a daily phone call just to talk, making a meal, etc.

3. Stress can build and escalate throughout the day and everyone needs someone to talk to. Be that person for your spouse. Make it a priority to sit with your spouse at the end of the day and talk about how the day went. The most important part of this may not be what is said but how the other person responds. Listen and validate one another with love and tenderness.

4. Let your spouse know that you love and appreciate them every single day with positive communication of love and affection. It is important to know their love preferences to be able to communicate to them clearly.

5. Do not get into the doldrums with your efforts. Take note of what things are working and if you are truly connecting every day. Make changes when needed and keep things real and alive by making enhancements to your daily nurturing, loving and friend shipping of one another.

 My personal favorite advice from the chapter was to talk as friends. Don’t always make our conversations about jobs, kids and problems. Journey back to the conversations that made you fall in love in the beginning. I love this advice. I think when we think of friends we journey outside of our relationship and look for others to be “friends” with to talk to as “friends”. Wouldn’t it be great to have that separate friend connection with the person in your life that you love the most?